Friday, August 10, 2012

Raymond Carrillo

It was later than usual on the morning
of Thursday, July 2, 1981, when attrac­tive 41-year-old Jacquelyn
Wallace Bar­ber arose, squinting and shielding her eyes from the bright
morning rays of sunshine that radiated through the east window of her
Camas, Washington home. When her eyes had adjusted to the light, she
sleepily made her way out of the bedroom, walked down the short hallway
and entered the bathroom on her right, where she washed and gargled.
It was going to be’ another beautiful day and, fortunately. It was her
day off. She planned to have a good time.After Jacquelyn consumed a
light breakfast with her live-in boyfriend, Jackie, as she was more
commonly known, took care of the routine chores of laundry and general
housekeeping that go with the responsibilities of being a mother of
six. By early afternoon, however, she gave up on her chores, changed
into some comfortable party clothes and headed for Portland, Ore­gon,
some 20 miles west of Camas and just south of the Columbia River.
When Jackie Barber backed out of the driveway of her modest frame
house sit­uated on an attractive tree-lined street that hot, sunny
afternoon, a simple rou­tine she’d gone through countless times before,
she had no reason to think that she might not ever see her children or
her home again. She, like most people, pre­ferred not to think about
death, particu­larly violent death at the hands of anoth­er. Needless to
say, the thought that she might become a victim that day never even
crossed her mind. So as she drove towards Portland for a day of drinking
and partying with friends, she was una­ware that day would be her
last.
She arrived in Portland about half an hour later, and went directly
to one of her favorite taverns in North Portland where she was well
known. She parked in the unpaved parking area at the rear of the tavern
and entered through the rear door. The bartender, having recognized her
as a somewhat regular customer, had her drink sitting at the bar as
she slid into the soft swivel seat. Needless to say, had Jackie Barber
been able to predict the horrible fate that awaited her later that day.
She likely would have cut short her drinking and hurried home. But she
had no way of knowing what would happen and she continued drinking,
not at one but at several area taverns, the last one being in the North
Portland community of St. Johns.
It was 85 degrees but slowly cooling off by 7:50 p.m. that same day
as occasional pedestrians dotted the sidewalks of St. Johns. Most of the
businesses had been closed for some time, but it was still daylight
and much too warm to stay in­ doors. It was some of these pedestrians
and a few passing motorists who wit­nessed the events that led to
Jackie Bar­ber’s terrifying ordeal.
At the intersection of North Lombard Street and Richmond Avenue, a
pickup truck heading east on Lombard out of St. Johns slowed to a near
stop, at which time a woman, later identified as Jackie Barber, hastily
exited from the passenger side. The driver and Ms. Barber ex­changed
words, which witnesses were unable to hear, and the driver sped away.
The man turned the pickup truck around in a nearby parking lot and, as
he did so, there was something about his eyes, shallow and restless,
that suddenly be­came hostile as he turned the vehicle onto the sidewalk
and headed for Jackie.
She heard the truck’s speeding engine and had just enough time to
turn around to see what was happening. As she did so, the impact of the
truck knocked her to the pavement. The front wheels drove over her,
crushing her instantly, and skidded to a stop. Pinned underneath the
truck, Jackie could do nothing as she heard the maniacal whine of the
engine. Moments later, the truck accelerated and surged quickly forward,
bouncing and shaking as the rear wheels ran over her already-battered
body and the driver and his truck sped away from the scene. The final
action threw Jackie’s body several feet from where she had first been
struck.
A passerby saw what had happened and went immediately to the nearest
phone booth and dialed the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch number to report
the incident. He told the dispatcher that he had been unable to get a
good look at the driver of the fleeing vehicle, nor had he been able to
see the vehicle’s license number. The dispatcher told him to stay near
the victim until help arrived.

Within minutes, a team of officers ar­rived from the St. Johns
Precinct of the Portland Police Bureau, located only a few blocks from
the crime scene. An ambulance and paramedics also arrived and
immediately converged on the scene.
It was quickly determined that the victim was still alive but
unconscious. She was lying in a steadily growing pool of her own blood,
and the paramedics and the police officers could clearly see that her
body had been badly mangled. She was bleeding profusely about the face
and nose, and traces of saliva mixed with blood trickled from the
corners of her mouth. Her hands were white, blood­less, and her hair was
wet with sweat and blood, all tangled around her badly in­jured head.
It was obvious from the out­set that she likely would not survive, as
the paramedics observed severe internal injuries and broken bones. But
they did what they could at the scene, after which they loaded her onto
the waiting ambu­lance and rushed her to the nearest hospi­tal.
Because the victim was still alive when she was loaded onto the
ambu­lance, it was decided that an officer would accompany her to the
hospital so, that he could obtain an ante-mortem or dying declaration
statement should she slip back into consciousness.
The officer accompanying Jackie Bar­ber, whose identification was
tentatively made at the scene from documents in her personal possession,
went through the necessary check list in his mind by first deciding
whether or not the victim was a competent witness. Because she reeked of
alcohol, he had serious doubts about her competency should she regain
con­sciousness, but his training nonetheless compelled him to be
prepared to ask the necessary questions if he should have to.
Unfortunately for the detectives, as well as for herself, family and
friends, Jackie Barber died from her injuries min­utes later. Police
officials made no im­mediate comments regarding her death, and
detectives would not reveal whether or not she regained consciousness
long enough to provide them with any details of the crime. Jackie’s
death now made the case a homicide, and homicide detec­tives from the
Central Precinct were as­signed to investigate.
When they arrived at the crime scene in North Portland they conferred
briefly with the first officers there, after which they quickly
determined the dimensions of the crime site. They directed uniformed
officers to cordon off the area as well as to position themselves as
guards to control curious spectators.
Their approach to processing the out­door crime scene was conducted
in the same manner as an indoor crime scene. But the trained detectives
knew that much greater care had to be taken out­doors because it is
susceptible to the con­stant changes in weather and contamina­tion by
passersby. For these reasons, the detectives approached the crime scene
where Jackie Barber was fatally wounded with the greatest
circumspection. During this early stage of the investigation, the
probers avoided entering the most criti­cal areas of the scene until the
order in which it would be processed had been fully determined. At
this point, it was observe and record rather than take ac­tion which
could possibly downgrade or destroy potential evidence.
The detectives knew they would have only one opportunity to search
and pro­cess the crime scene properly and, with the help of the Oregon
State Police Crime Lab, they began by photograph­ing it thoroughly. With
darkness fast ap­proaching, the sleuths knew they couldn’t wait until
morning to process the site. For this reason, bright lights were set up
to aid them in working through the night.
Careful measurements were taken from the point where the victim was
be­lieved first struck to the point where her body had been found, some
23 feet away. Tire tread skid marks were also present where the driver
initially swerved onto the sidewalk, at the point where his truck first
struck the victim and drove over her with the front wheels and skidded
to a stop, to the point where he accelerated and ran over the victim
with the truck’s rear wheels. Had these tire tracks been impressed in
soil, they would have been coated with shellac and a cast made. Since
these were on firm pave­ment, they were simply photographed with
accurate measurements shown in each picture.

Approaching the crime scene from its outer perimeters and working in
towards the primary focal point, namely where Jackie Barber’s broken
body had been found, the investigators carefully searched for all
traces of blood, broken glass from the vehicle, paint chips from the
vehicle, flesh, hairs and fibers. Blood was recovered by using
pipettes. The blood was then transferred to tubes with an equal amount
of normal saline solution. The other items of evidence, such as glass
and paint chips, were ob­tained after a minute examination of the area.
A little of everything was taken from the scene, even if its
connection with the crime appeared slight, as the trained investigators
knew it would be easier to obtain everything significant at that time
as opposed to waiting until the area became contaminated by the public.
As the evening wore on, officers rounded up witnesses who were able
to provide them with a sketchy description of the suspected vehicle and
its driver. According to the witnesses, the pickup truck had been
heading east out of St. Johns. One witness told police that he observed a
man and a woman inside the truck at one point, when they were stopped
at a traffic signal. The wit­ness said the couple was arguing, but the
truck resumed its eastbound direction when the light changed from red
to green. A couple of blocks later, at the intersection of North
Lombard Street and Richmond Avenue, the truck slowed and the woman
jumped out the passenger side door. The witness told police that the
truck then turned around, drove up on the sidewalk and struck the
victim, driv­ing over her.
According to Lt. Dan Noelle, public information officer of the
Portland Po­lice Bureau, the witness told police that he had been unable
to obtain the pickup’s license number. However, the witness described
the pickup truck as a late mod- el Chevrolet, possibly a 1978 model,
with Washington State license plates. The witness told police that the
truck was a two-tone brown and butterscotch, with a canopy that extended
over the cab. The driver was described only as a white male in his
mid-to-late 20s, and the truck was last seen after it turned off Lombard
Street and headed west on North Ivanhoe Street.
A short time later, police rounded up an additional witness who
provided them with a better, more accurate description of the suspect.
The witness described the hit-and-run driver as a white male with auburn
hair that covered his ears and neck, and a mustache. The witness also
recalled that the suspect had a pro­nounced vertical scar near his
lower lip on the left side of his face, and a horizontal scar on the
left side of his chin. Police would not disclose any information about
the witness except to say that he had been near the crime scene.
While reviewing the facts of the case, the investigators theorized
that Jackie Barber probably knew her killer, particu­larly since she was
seen getting out of the suspect’s pickup. However, they consid­ered
that she may not have known him well, as it was possible that she had
met him the very day she was killed, perhaps at a tavern. The sleuths
also had to consider the possibility that Jackie had hitched a ride,
which could make her killing a stranger-against-stranger homi­cide, the
most difficult type to solve.
Although the detectives, didn’t hold much credence with the latter
theory because of the mounting evidence to the contrary, they couldn’t
discount it entire­ly, since stranger-against-stranger homi­cides were
up in the Portland area.
Even with crime and murder on the rise, why would anyone deliberately
run down an unknown pedestrian? Although the stranger-against-stranger
theory was plausible in the Jackie Barber case, it just didn’t wash
with the detectives. After all, if witnesses were correct, she was seen
riding in the suspect’s vehicle shortly be­fore the deadly incident,
and was seen arguing with him as well. If she had just met the man,
what could they have found to argue about in such a short time? The
detectives wondered, and decided it was time they hit the streets to
start checking out all the North Portland taverns in search of new
leads.
During the next several hours, homi­cide investigators, aided by
uniformed officers, exhausted all possible leads. At one North Portland
bar a witness who wished anonymity told police that Jackie Barber had
been in earlier that day and had left with a man wearing a plaid shirt, a
gray or blue denim vest and jeans. The witness couldn’t tell police
the man’s name, but remembered he was a “tall, long-nosed fellow with a
white scar on his chin. The victim was seen at anoth­er tavern, but
witnesses could not say whether she was alone or with someone. And still
yet another bar witness recalled Jackie had been there with a man she
lived with, a man by the name of Ray. The witnesses said that the
couple lived in Camas, Washington, and came in regularly. This was
perhaps the sleuths’ best lead, since now they had the victim’s place
of residence as well as the name of her live-in boyfriend. Their next
step was to attempt to locate Ray for questioning, as well as set up
interviews with other acquaintances and relatives of the victim.

Before the evening was over, detec­tives determined the name and
location of the first tavern Jackie Barber went to on the day of her
death and learned that she had driven there earlier that after­noon. It
was also determined that she met Ray there, and left with him in his
pickup truck at an undetermined time. The de­tectives also learned that
Ray’s full name was Raymond Anthony Carrillo, 32.
The new information ruled out Jack­ie’s death as a
stranger-to-stranger crime. Evidence showed that she drove to the
initial tavern, met Ray and left with him. But was Ray the killer? The
detectives wondered. It seemed likely, particularly since he fit the
general de­scription of the man seen arguing with Jackie only moments
prior to her being run down by a pickup similar to the one that belonged
to Ray. But before they jumped to any conclusions, the investi­gators
wanted to locate and interview Raymond Carrillo, not to mention
exam­ine his pickup for additional evidence. Before they presented
their case to the district attorney’s office, they wanted to make sure
they had sufficient evidence for a conviction.
Earlier, shortly after Jackie’s death, investigators had carefully
removed her clothing by cutting it from her body. Each article of
clothing was handled carefully to avoid as little miscellaneous
contamination as possible, and each piece was wrapped separately with
pa­per. It was taken immediately to the crime laboratory for processing.
Before her body was allowed to be disturbed any further,
investigators ob­tained photographs, both long shots and close-ups, and
concentrated on getting pictures of her wounds. A measuring de­vice was
placed in many of the pictures so ‘that investigators could accurately
de­scribe the size and severity of the wounds in court, if necessary.
When they were finished, Jackie Barber’s crushed body was taken to the
Multnomah County Morgue on Northeast Knott Street in Portland.
Early the following morning, the de­tectives met with Dr. Ronald
O’Hallor­an, a deputy medical examiner, and were present during the
autopsy. O’Halloran described “blackish irregular stains, as­sorted
lacerations and abrasions,” and concluded that the victim died from
wounds sustained from being struck and subsequently run over by a piece
of equipment consistent with that of a vehi­cle. Additional tests on
the victim’s blood concluded that she had consumed a great deal of
alcohol on the day of her death, and determined that her blood al­cohol
level was .24 percent. .08 percent is considered legally intoxicated
in the state of Oregon.
During the autopsy, paint chips were also removed from the victim’s
body, as were rust and dirt particles that had em­bedded themselves
beneath her skin as the vehicle drove over her and subse­quently
propelled her body like a projec­tile some 23 feet from where she had
initially been struck.
In less than 24 hours, the Portland Po­lice detectives, with the help
of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department in Van­couver, Washington,
had traced Jackie Barber’s movements the day of her death, which merely
confirmed much of what they already knew. Tracing Carril­lo’s
movements turned out to be some­what more difficult, but after several
in­terviews and as many hours later, they were able to determine when
and where Carrillo had met up with the victim. They learned he had been
out cutting wood on the day of the victim’s death. Cutting and selling
firewood was his on­ly source of employment at the time.
Witnesses told police that Carrillo re­turned home shortly after
Jackie had left for the North Portland tavern and unload­ed, split and
stacked the freshly cut wood for later sale. When he had finished, he
showered, put on fresh clothes and head­ed for Portland to meet Jackie.
That was sometime by mid-afternoon, police were told.
But where was Carrillo now? The in­vestigators wondered. When they
arrived at the Camas, Washington home Carrillo shared with Jackie Barber
and her six children, the detectives were in­formed that he had not
returned home after leaving the previous afternoon. Not wishing to
distress the grief-stricken family any more than they had to, the
detectives asked for names and addresses of friends and relatives,
anywhere that Carrillo might have gone after the vio­lent, tragic
incident with Jackie. When they got their information, they left to
interview neighbors.
In their search for background infor­mation on the victim and the suspect, the detectives questioned neighbors.
Much to their dismay, however, the residents had little information
to offer. They sim­ply told the investigators that Barber and Carrillo
had had a few lovers’ quarrels but, other than that, they seemed like
friendly, peaceful people who minded their own business. There was
nothing to indicate that Carrillo was capable of vio­lence of the
magnitude that took Jackie Barber’s life only hours before. Carrillo
just didn’t seem like that type of guy, the neighbors said.
When the detectives checked with friends and relatives of Carrillo
and the victim, they learned little more than they had when they
interviewed the Camas neighbors. At the conclusion of the interviews
with each person on their list, the probers felt more frustrated than
they had at the outset, as each person they talked to said they hadn’t
seen nor had they heard from Carrillo in recent days. It appeared as if
he had simply vanished.
Their frustration mounting, the Port­land sleuths obtained the
license num­ber of Carrillo’s pickup from the Wash­ington Department of
Motor Vehicles and promptly issued a statewide APB. As an additional
measure, Carrillo’s photo, physical description and vehicle infor­mation
was sent over the wires to several law enforcement agencies around the
country requesting that, if captured, he be held for questioning as a
suspect in the death of Jackie Barber.
Meanwhile, Portland authorities ran a routine background check on
Carrillo lo­cally and learned that he had been arrest­ed, charged and
convicted of carnal knowledge some 13 years prior to Jackie Barber’s
death. Specific information regarding the charge was not released, nor
were details of sentencing. A search of Multnomah County Circuit Court
and Clark County Superior Court records failed to turn up specifics of
the carnal knowledge conviction. The search of his records did reveal,
however, that Carril­lo had also been convicted on a misde­meanor charge
of theft of timber and had been placed on probation. Carrillo had also
previously used the names James W. Crawford and Terry Ralph Larson.
Days passed with few additional re­sults. The hunt was on for Raymond
Car­rillo, but there had been no sign of him and the trail was
beginning to get cold. Portland detectives, through the cooper­ation of
Washington State authorities, set up a round-the-clock stakeout of the
Barber residence in Camas which proved futile. All of his local
hangouts, as well as those in Oregon, were carefully monitored, again
with no sign of him. By this time, most investigators believed that
Carrillo had fled the area.
Just when the case seemed at its lowest point, Raymond Carrillo was
spotted in Portland. An officer tailed him for awhile and, after backup
units arrived, he was arrested and booked into the city jail on charges
of murder, misuse of a motor vehicle and driving while suspen­ded.
After he was printed and mugged, Carrillo was taken into an
interrogation room where he was grilled by detectives after being
advised of his constitutional rights. He said little, and requested an
attorney. After signing a statement of indigency, Portland attorney
Wendell Birkland was assigned to represent him.
In the meantime, after filing affidavits for a search warrant, the
Portland Police Bureau impounded Carrillo’s pickup to the crime lab.
Although several days had passed since the incident involving Jack­ie
Barber, detectives were hopeful that some useful evidence would be
obtained after the vehicle was thoroughly gone over.
In processing the vehicle, crime lab technicians concentrated
primarily on obtaining paint chips for purposes of comparison with those
already retrieved from the crime scene as well as from the victim’s
body. They were also concerned with locating blood, hairs, flesh and
clothing fibers, particularly because hit- and-run victims often leave
such items on the vehicle in question. When a person’s body is struck by
a vehicle, the victim’s clothing weave pattern is often impressed on
the vehicle’s paint or metal.
After the pickup truck was processed for the aforementioned, it was
examined more carefully for bloodstains. Since it was possible that the
vehicle had been washed after the incident or that blood had been
removed by the elements of weather, a luminol test was performed,
capable of showing even the most minute blood traces.
However, police officials would not comment on the outcome of such
tests, preferring not to divulge their evidence until the case went to
trial.
Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney John Bradley was assigned
to present the evidence to a grand jury. Afterwards, Raymond Carrillo
was indicted on charges of murder, and he was bound over for trial. At
his arraignment on June 13, 1981, Carrillo pleaded innocent. His
defense, prepared by Wendell Birkland, was one of diminished
responsibility, lack of mental responsibility, duress, justification,
and intoxication/accident. His bail was set at $250,000. He remained in
custody pending trial.
At the trial in October 1981, Deputy DA John Bradley told jurors that
Jacquelyn Wallace Barber was intentionally slain by the defendant when
Carrillo ran over her with his pickup. During his opening statement,
Bradley told the jurors that both the victim and the defend­ant had been
drinking beer heavily much of the afternoon on the day of the
inci­dent, that Carrillo and Barber had argued and that they were en
route to yet another tavern when the victim jumped from Car­rillo’s
vehicle and started walking down the sidewalk. Bradley told the jurors
that Carrillo turned his pickup around, crossed over the sidewalk and
struck the victim. Bradley said he would present witnesses who would
testify that after Ms. Barber was knocked to the ground by the impact,
Carrillo drove the front wheels over Barber’s body, stopped
mo­mentarily, gunned the engine and drove the rear wheels over her again
with such great force that Jackie’s body rolled ap­proximately 23 feet
from where she was first struck. Bradley said witnesses would testify
as to the expressions on Carrillo’s face when he drove over her the
second time and fled from the scene.
On the other hand, Defense Attorney Wendell Birkland described Jackie
Bar­ber’s death as an “unfortunate acci­dent,” and said that the
defendant “may be responsible in the civil sense or some lesser
negligence sense, but he didn’t mean to kill that woman.” Birkland said
Jackie did not take the precautions of a normal pedestrian. Birkland’s
claim that the act was non-intentional was based primarily on skid
marks at the scene, which he said were not consistent with the act of a
person wishing to kill some­one. Birkland claimed that Carrillo drove
on after he struck Barber with his vehicle because he was frightened
and confused, in part because of his intoxicated state. Birkland said
the fact that Carrillo ap­plied the brakes at the spot where Jackie
Barber was struck showed his lack of intention. Birkland also contended
that Carrillo was in love with Jackie Barber and had intended to marry
her.
“Is that the act of a man who wants to kill her when all he had to do
is hit the gas and roar over her?” Birkland asked the jurors,
clarifying that when Carrillo pan­icked and drove on, he was not aware
that Jackie’s body was in such a position that the rear wheels of the
pickup would drive over her body.
At one point in the trial, the defense agreed to stipulate to the
facts of the au­topsy report and entered a motion to ex­clude showing
the jurors photographs of the victim’s body. The motion was grant­ed.
Defense Attorney Birkland argued that Carrillo should not be found
guilty of intentional murder because the incident was “an unfortunate
accident,” and he urged the jurors to return a verdict on some lesser
charge.
In charging the jury with its obliga­tions, Multnomah County Circuit
Judge John C. Beatty Jr. told the jurors they could find the defendant
guilty of mur­der, first-degree manslaughter or they could acquit him.
Judge Beatty defined murder as an intentional killing, and said a
person commits first-degree man­slaughter “when he causes the death of
another human being recklessly, under circumstances manifesting extreme
in­difference to the value of human life.”
Following several hours of delibera­tions, jurors convicted Raymond
An­thony Carrillo on the first-degree mans slaughter charge by a vote of
11 to 1.
On Thursday, December 10, 1981, Judge Beatty sentenced Carrillo to 20
years at Oregon State Prison. The judge also ordered that Carrillo pay
up to $10,000 restitution to cover the cost of his state-funded
defense attorney follow­ing his release from prison.